Back cover blurb: From the moment they land on the planet
Androzani Minor, everything goes wrong for the Doctor and his new young
companion, Peri. They become involved in the struggle between brutal
gun-runners, ruthless federation troops, and the hideously mutilated
Sharaz Jek, who lurks in the depths of the caves with his android army.
Key to the struggle is spectrox, the most valuable substance in the
universe. Suitably processed, spectrox is an elixir of life, but in its
raw state it is a deadly poison - a fact which will cost the Doctor
another of his Time Lord lives...

"I'm sorry I got you into this Peri... Curiosity has always
been my downfall."
The Doctor, The Caves of Androzani: Part
1

Before I discuss this book, I must make clear that this story has not been
a personal favorite of mine. Now, for those of you who are still reading
by this point or have restrained from vilifying me, I would like to point
out that I do respect this story for the classic status it has achieved.
On screen it is beautifully made with lots of atmosphere, and well-drawn
characters by Robert Holmes. I can clearly understand why this story is
favored by fans so much and has been lauded as a classic of Peter
Davison's tenure ever since its creation. The sense of doom and
desperation by the Doctor and Peri as they succumb to the Spectrox disease
makes for one of the best and most logical lead-ups to a regeneration. But
it is also a dark and grim story with very few likeable characters and to
all intents and purposes, the Doctor and Peri are sidelined from the story
in favor of other characters that tell the real story of gunrunning and
drugs. And because of the atmosphere I found myself revisiting this story
less compared to other adventures.

It is therefore quite shocking that I should proudly proclaim that this
is one of the very best book adaptations of a Doctor Who television
story and quite possibly one of Terrance Dicks' best adaptation works!
This book is truly amazing and had me glued to the pages from cover to
cover. And this was a story that I don't normally enjoy revisiting!

What makes this story so good? One of the biggest reasons is that
Terrance Dicks has taken greater care in his descriptions and narration
than in the past. I have just finished reading his adaptation of The State of Decay, and before that I had read The Android Invasion, The Wheel
in Space, and The Five Doctors. In all
instances, there was one glaring problem with the prose: it was being
written as if it was aimed at five year olds and under. Every little plot
point was explained through narration in the biggest and simplest terms.
There was very little creativity in presenting settings or characters,
simply leaving this to the original script dialogues and descriptions. But
The Caves of Androzani is a very different book. Instead of
talking down to his reader, Terrance Dicks gets on with telling the story,
allowing events and characters to play their part and reveal themselves as
the plot advances. Terrance Dicks cannot completely get away from
describing very simple things that the story could normally explain by
itself, but they are less obtrusive and usually written so as to support
the atmosphere and setting of the story rather than holding the hand of
the reader. This is clearly a book aimed at an older group of children and
even teenagers.

The Doctor and Peri are also well realized in this adaptation. When I
watched the television program, I had always thought that the Doctor and
Peri played very little role in the story. While plot-wise they play a
small role, thematically they play a huge role and the book does a much
better job of bringing out their characters so that their desperation is
always present to the reader who is constantly wondering how they are
going to possibly survive in this environment. I think the reason the
Doctor and Peri seemed less important in the television story was that
there were so many other well-drawn characters being played by strong
performers in this story. Between Morgus, Sharaz Jek, Chellak, Stotz and
Salateen (playing both human and android), the Doctor and Peri have some
stiff competition for screen time. In the book, there are no
scene-stealing actors to worry about, which means Dicks can better balance
the story and make the Doctor and Peri stand apart more.

The supporting cast is also well portrayed in this story. It is
interesting that Dicks chooses not to have Morgus do Shakespearean asides
in the novel, but this is probably due to the medium rather than a choice
by the author. However, when Morgus prematurely feels that the situation
is slipping out of his control, Dicks manages to slip in a few asides as
Morgus thinks to himself and wonders how he is going to get out the
situation. It is also interesting that some of Morgus' background is
fleshed out, including his wearing of a ponytail that indicates his
highest rank in Androzani society. It is also made more clear that Morgus
is paranoid and that he only fails because his paranoia gets the better of
him and he begins to make mistakes as he rashly begins to act out more in
the open thinking that his cover has been blown when it really hasn't. The
scene in which Morgus' secretary takes over the company from him is also
well recreated as we see an apparently emotionless character suddenly
reveal her true colors.

Sharaz Jek is also memorable in both the television story and this
novel. His madness is made very apparent. And while his love of Peri
seems deranged at first, it gradually becomes more and more touching as
his concern for her safety is the only thing which keeps him from
teetering over into total insanity. And yet, despite all the sympathy we
may have for Jek, Dicks also reminds us of how dangerous he is. When the
Jek helps the Doctor find the queen bats, we get a temporary look into the
mind of the Doctor as he marvels at how quickly he is becoming friends
with Jek, and also realizing that if Peri does get cured, he may have to
kill Jek in order to take her from him.

The planet of Androzani is also well portrayed in this story. So few
Doctor Who stories make their planets interesting or alien, with
only a few exceptions. Towards the end of The Caves of Androzani,
you really get a sense that this is not just some Earth cave, but an alien
cave filled with deadly magma monsters and molten mud flows that can catch
you unaware if you are not careful. The planet feels like an entity all
its own that could easily and indifferently kill both our heroes and the
villains.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is the sense of the Doctor's
desperation to heal Peri. The Doctor is literally reduced to his most
basic and fundamental emotions and beliefs in this story. Dicks
beautifully captures the almost superhuman strength of the Doctor who
manages to keep back the effects of the Spectrox which has almost killed
Peri, while managing to deal with Chellak's army, the Magma Beast, Sharaz
Jek, androids, gunrunners, and countless other terrors that are all poised
to stop the Doctor's fight to win against the disease. By the final
chapters of the book, the Doctor is reduced to only an emotional state: he
must save Peri at any cost to himself or those around him. And uses any
means possible to simply survive and save her. This leads wonderfully into
the regeneration as the Doctor collapses exhausted in the TARDIS, having
kept all these forces at bay for so long, he can at last relax and let the
regeneration take its course.

The regeneration itself is much faster than the television story. It is
quick, strange, alien, vague, and shocking: everything that a good
regeneration should be! And unlike stories such as Planet of the Spiders or The
Parting of the Ways, where the regeneration seems to be a tacked on as
an afterthought, this is a regeneration that has been a long time coming -
ever since they first discovered the symptoms of the disease - and is part
of a natural progression of the story.

In the end, this story is one of the best adaptations I have read by
Terrance Dicks and one of the best overall, clearly ranking up with Doctor Who and the Daleks and Doctor Who and the Cybermen as one the most I have
enjoyed reading. While the simple cover of Sharaz Jek and the half-formed
face of Peter Davison and Colin Baker may not be the most exciting cover
to draw the reader in, the book itself is a masterpiece and well worth
seeking out. 10/10

PS: This novel sticks pretty tightly to the original television story,
but does make one or two small changes: many of the scenes which were
intended for the exterior of Androzani, instead of the caves, have been
moved there in the novel. There is more mention of Androzani culture,
including the use of ponytails to show rank and the presence of the
Praesidium as an almost Roman Senate. The belt plates which are used by
Jek to protect against the androids are also emphasized more. Also, the
Doctor's journey to get the queen bat's milk is made more tense as the
bats are written as hanging from cliff sides over the planet's magma flow.
The Doctor must precariously climb down to get at them, something which is
clearly suicidal, but necessary.